Properties east of Third on the UES command record prices

The corner of Third Avenue and 60th Street, and a rendering of the Charles

Traditionally, Third Avenue has been the dividing line on the Upper East Side between the residences of the supremely privileged and those of the recent college graduate in need of cheap rent. Anything “east of Third” bore a stigma, but that’s all changing thanks to new luxury developments.

Recently the penthouse at the Charles, a glass-and-limestone condominium rising on far-flung First Avenue, went into contract for $37.94 million – more than double the previous sales record in the area.

At that price, the buyer paid some $3,196 a square foot, making that transaction the second-most-expensive deal east of Lexington Avenue in the 60s and 70s, according to the New York Times. The current record is held by the sale of the entire 47th floor of Trump Palace, located on 69th Street at Third Avenue, which sold for $3,855 a square foot last year.

“There is sticker shock,” Ginger Brokaw, a broker at Town Residential who is a director in charge of sales at the Charles with Jason Karadus, also with Town, told the Times. But, she added, since the average sales price at the building is “only $2,000 a square foot, for a beautifully appointed new condo on the Upper East Side, if anyone knows their market, they know that is lower than a lot of the other buildings.”

According to the Times, prices at the building actually average around $2,500 a square foot, compared with an average condominium price of roughly $1,600 a square foot elsewhere in the neighborhood – the neighborhood defined as Lexington Avenue to the East River, from 59th to 79th Street. [NYT] – Christopher Cameron